For the first time, Starship will reuse a recovered booster

SpaceX announced that the Starship Flight 9 mission will use a reused booster for the first time, that of the seventh flight.

Most of the Raptor engines, having already been used on the Starship 7 booster, will be reused. On Thursday morning, SpaceX performed a static fire test on the launch pad, marking an unprecedented milestone: the restart of a booster that has already flown. It completed its first flight on January 16, 2025, during the inaugural mission of the latest version of Starship. Planned as the last suborbital test before an orbital attempt, this mission ended in failure during the ascent phase, forcing the company to schedule a new flight, the eighth.

Despite this incident, the booster successfully returned to Earth and was recovered by the launch tower arms. It became the second booster to be recovered this way, after the one from Flight 5, which was too damaged during descent and is now out of service.

This test launch is therefore the first ever conducted on a unit that has already flown. To date, no date has been announced for the next flight, suggesting that it is not scheduled for tomorrow. Elon Musk simply reposted a message on X.

The analysis of the causes of Flight 8’s failure is still ongoing, while the analysis of Flight 7 has just been completed. Both missions experienced a sudden stop at a similar point, just before reaching the end of the vessel’s propulsive phase. The ninth flight is expected to remain suborbital, with the same objectives: reigniting a Raptor engine in orbit and testing the release of dummy Starlink satellites.

Flight 8 marked a setback for the program. Although the data collected is valuable, delays are mounting, which could jeopardize Starship’s role in the Artemis program. Meanwhile, Elon Musk remains committed to Mars within five years, a bold promise that appeals to Donald Trump, even if it still seems out of reach.